Thornton soccer settles for tie with Gateway

Trojans have been big winners, big losers this season

- After playing 80 minutes worth of regulation soccer plus 20 additional minutes of overtime soccer the last thing any team wants to do is leave the field with a tie.

But Thornton might be happy to have their 0-0 tie with Gateway Tuesday at 5-Star Stadium.

The Trojans have been either big winners or big losers this season, winning two games by a score of 3-0 this season but also losing two 5-0 games as well as a 6-0 loss at Prairie View on March 20.

So Thornton leaving with a tie instead of a loss in a game where they didn’t have their best stuff could be a good sign of the Trojans starting to gain some consistency.

“For some reason we really didn’t have any energy today and we were just kind of off,” Thornton coach Neil Magor said. “So to leave the field with a tie instead of a loss might not be the worst thing for us today.”

Thornton nearly stole a win twice during the second overtime when sophomore Rianna Roy launched two balls that Gateway goaltender Elizabeth Reeves had to make spectacular plays to stop.

But even though the Trojans dominated most of the action in the second half and in the overtimes, they could not find the back of the net despite peppering Reeves with multiple shots during stretches of the action.

Thornton’s defense was relentless at times and never allowed Gateway any real opportunities to create any offense.

“We are definitely coming along and we have improved a lot from last season but there are still some areas we need to get better at if we want to compete with the top teams in our league,” Magor said.

After losing three of four games during the second half of March the Trojans have had a strong start to April losing only one of their three games as they strive to find some consistency and attempt to get back to .500.

Thornton (3-5-1, 1-2-1 in EMAC league play) will play Thornton at 7 p.m., Thursday at 5-Star Stadium.